WECATON NEWS REPORT!!! -- 20 September 2004:
Yet Another WC Alumn, the Report of Whose Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated:

Jack Godby was located by me, just yesterday. We just finished a 30-minute conversation and I'm thrilled to write to all of you that the numerous reports of Jack's death, over the years, have been greatly exaggerated. My sincerest thanks to DONNA J. RICHARDS, Jack's classmate, for having given me that extra "push" it sometimes takes to get us moving on doing these things.

Ironically, I had never actually done much searching for him, due to the fact that I thought he was deceased. But over the past year or so, Donna and I have had several exchanges on the topic of Jack. We both had liked him in school and thought he was fun and interesting. Just yesterday, we had yet another exchange and something just "clicked," so I checked in the most obvious place (the 2001 alumni directory), and there he was! Well, I wrote an e-mail AND I called him. I got no response, so I called again this morning. Right around 3 p.m., the phone rang and it was Jack, returning my call.

Although I'm terribly happy to report that Jack is still alive, not ALL of the news is good. We had a great and newsy conversation, yes, but it was very slow going. You see, Jack has suffered three separate strokes---one on his right side, one on his left side, and one at the brain stem, he told me. He says that getting around is laborious, as he must use a walker. His speech is quite slurred and one must listen terribly carefully. A couple of times, I did have to ask him to repeat a sentence or two, in order to fully understand. But he was patient and tolerant and we got through it just fine.

Jack has lived in NYC for the past 22 years. He had an extensive acting career in off-Broadway stage plays and said he always thought he'd go on to do other things, but never did. Before his life in NYC, he was a resident of Chicago for many, many years where he also appeared in stage plays and the theater.

Jack never married, has no biological children, and he lives alone in his apartment. He did serve as a mentor for a child who needed financial support and guidance for a number of years and he says they remain close. The child is about 25 now. He says he thinks of the child as an adoptee, although nothing was ever actually legal. He does physical therapy at his apartment and doesn't go out terribly often.

He was quite stunned to hear from me, after all these years, as I'm sure we can all imagine. For some reason, I seem to have that effect on all these people I manage to somehow find. Still, he was thrilled to know that he had not been forgotten by all his old schoolmates. We talked of his drum major uniform with the big plume and all his years in the band and how much he enjoyed it all. I urged him to come to our alumni gathering and told him that no one had forgotten him, as he had thought. It was easy to tell that he was quite thrilled to hear that.

He says travel is exceedingly difficult for him, what with the walker, and the inability to carry a suitcase, due to his halting pace with the walker. Nevertheless, I told him we would all be thrilled to see him, should he decide to get on a plane and come join us, and that we'd all join forces and help to look after him.

Jack made specific mention of three names and they were all females---NANCY J. ERTELL, SHIRLEY J. TUDOR, and you, Donna! He would very much like to hear from all of you. He seemed particularly interested in hearing from you, Nancy! So what do you say, gang? Let's all overwhelm Jack with good wishes and the joy of finding him, after all these years! He told me would just love to hear from anyone and everyone with whom he ever shared a hallway at WC. Here are the vitals:

JACK L. GODBY
26 2nd Av. Unit 7R
New York, N.Y. 10003
212 674-0920
( jgod42@aol.com )

Let's let Jack know that he has not been forgotten. Even though travel is difficult for him, I suspect that he'd make the effort, if enough interest were shown. I got the distinct impression that travel funds are not a problem. This was great news to me! His call has made my day. I'll see you all very soon, now.

---And there you have it! More at 11--- B

- posted by Mikey @ 2:31 PM